What not to eat
Posted by Mike
Over the past year I've gotten lots of questions about eating and diet. I never think I have a good answer either; there are so many factors that go into what works and what doesn't (metabolism, activity level, age, sex, etc) that it's nearly impossible to give accurate advice. It took me having an awesome trainer for about 8 months to figure it out and that's only because he gave me a good base diet to work from. That being said, I have managed to work out a few things that are pretty applicable all around.
- Drink lots of water. By lots, I mean as close to a gallon a day as you can get. This does not include cokes, coffee, tea, or anything else. Be prepared to visit the little boy's (or girl's) room frequently.
- Eat more, smaller meals. Right now I'm doing 7 meals a day, but that's not really necessary unless you're exercising strenuously. Even breaking things up to 4-5 a day is good, like having a mid afternoon snack of raw veggies.
- When snacking, eat lots of vegetables. Fruit is good too, but be wary of the sugar content. Avoid dried fruit at all costs due to the extra sugar (dried pineapple is my kryptonite, fyi).
- Don't eat out.
- If you do eat out, try to eat salads. Honey mustard the condiment in the grocery store is ok to eat, honey mustard dipping sauce and dressing generally are not. Try to go with salads that have grilled salmon, tuna, or chicken on them.
- Don't eat the free bread.
- Do a little preemptive calorie legwork. Most big chains have their nutritional information posted online. Read up and make informed choices before you get there.
- If you're like me and like Asian food, look for menu items with oyster sauce and make sure to ask for light sauce. Avoid eating rice too!
- In general, avoid restaurant starches like pastas, bread, potatoes, etc. The portions are huge. Try to swap it for a side salad instead.
- Many restaurants have vegetables on the menu. If they're not steamed or grilled, it's probably best to just get a side salad. Green beans aren't that healthy cooked in bacon, and neither is corn steeped in butter.
- Speaking of vegetables, the order of general "good-for-you-ness": green -> red -> orange -> yellow.
- Stick to lean meats as much as possible like chicken, fish, and turkey. Beef should be rarer in your diet. A good general rule of them is the fewer legs the better.
- Avoid sauces for flavor. Seasoning is ok, but get the sauce on the side or not at all.
- Don't go to fast food places!
- Try to plan your meals in advance for the week. I've found that if I plan the menu in advance (and the nutritional info) I tend to eat out less.
- Carry your lunch to work- "quick" lunches at Hooters are an easy way to pack on the pounds.
- Last but not least, avoid alcohol like the plague.
There are literally tons of little substitutions you can make and never notice: light bread instead of regular, fat free cheese, fat free / light yogurt, sugar free jello, rice cakes (flavored are ok), I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. Do a little investigative grocery store shopping. Don't worry about cheating; yes you will slip up from time to time. There will be that pie, or that beer, or whatever. Try to keep it in control and cheat only about once a week. Of course all of this is tons more effective with exercise, but we're all busy people right? Worse comes to worse if you're in the Mobile area, I can recommend a guy who will sweat it off of you pretty quick.
The Weekly Roundup #1
Posted by Mike
My first full week in San Diego! It was lots of things, but most of all, it was normal. I don't think this is a bad thing by any stretch, in fact I find it reassuring that after picking up my life and shaking the dust out of it, I'm able to feel comfortable enough to be resume normality in my new environment. People who don't travel often may not understand this phenomenon, but after any move (even across town!) it normally takes me at least a month for the day to day stuff to settle back into a routine. My belongings were delivered last Saturday and the final box was put in the closet Friday night. I'm not saying I'm done unpacking, I'm just as done as I can get right this minute. I'm in a slightly smaller apartment and I'm lacking some storage I'm used to, so not everything fits yet. I also don't have some key furniture items (entertainment center, couch, TV) so there's that too. My relocation reimbursement can't get here soon enough.
So what have I been doing in this fine fine city you ask? Not a whole lot! I kid you not. Last weekend was a nice grownup (ie, there was wine and no IHOP involved) dinner and dessert with some friends, but other than I've been a real homebody. I'm still adjusting to my slightly different work schedule and my new daily commute routine. Unpacking has taken up quite a bit of time naturally, then there's gym time on top of that. In my free time after all that I've been sucked into a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon thanks to my buddy Rob, and THEN there's the Xbox. I'm pretty psyched about Dragon Age coming out in November from Bioware. Thankfully to help fill the time until then Brutal Legends launches in October. While normally the theme of the game and Jack Black's presence in it would be two strikes, the demo was unbelievably fun and somehow he wasn't that annoying. Probably because it was just his voice. I've made a promise to myself to finish both Afro Samurai and Castle Crashers before buying any more games. Tales of Vesperia? I'll get back to you. Fallout 3? Yeah.. uh, you're scheduled for a quick trip to Gamestop to trade-in. Sorry!
Before I forget, let's talk about the commute. Many people have scoffed at me for living 25 miles from work, especially when my gas mileage is between 15-19 mpg. To you people I say "THPBPBPBPB." I live two miles from the beach (but it's getting too chilly damnit) in a kickass city. Encinitas is just north of San Diego so you get all the convenience of living in American's 7th largest city while still maintaining a tiny beach-town atmosphere. The commute doesn't bother me either, in fact I've actually come to look forward to it. I just plug in my iPhone to the stereo and relax the entire way. How many people can say they take an hour out of their day to stop and just enjoy music? Lately I've been exploring classical more as it's cheap as hell on iTunes. There are tons of albums with 50-100 classic pieces for between $9-15, and so far the only downside is ending up with a few copies of the same song. I think I have at least 4 copies of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons". If you're like me and tend to drive to match your soundtrack, then it's doubly as awesome. So far the William Tell Overture is taking first place in my classical driving playlist, with the 1812 Overture a strong second. Strangely enough Ride of the Valkyries was not in my top five. The timing is just a bit off somehow.
That's it peeps! I realize there's a significant lack of anything even remotely exciting, but next weekend's roundup should be more interesting as I begin to explore my new home. I've also got another 2-3 posts written for this week, so I seem to be staying on top of this whole blogging thing.
Ants in the pants
Posted by Mike
Ants in the pants? ANTS IN THE PANTS?! YOU SONOFABITCH! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO GET ME THE RED MEGAMAN YOU CHEAP PIECE OF CRAP I HATE YOU! -Cartman (Damien, 1998)
My very first exposure to SouthPark so many years ago was this episode; Damien the son of Satan comes to earth to herald he arrival of Satan. It also happens to be Cartman's birthday. This episode and "Pinkeye" were on a VHS tape that was a birthday present from my sister Theresa. I think this particular tape was given to me sometime in 2000... yeah, I got on the SouthPark bandwagon kinda late.
Let me start by saying I'm not normally a light sleeper. Certain things (my cat, gym trips, hurricanes) have changed that for the worse. You would think I should sleep better with a cat constantly walking on me but somehow, that's just not the case. Last night I had another issue: ants. That's them in the picture up there.
You know that state of sleep, right as your about to fall asleep? Where you always think you're about to roll off the bed and you jerk, waking yourself up? Yeah, that one. I couldn't manage to get past that because every time I'd doze off, I'd feel like something was ever so slightly brushing against me. My arms. My head. My leg. I'd swipe at it and doze back off, only to have it happen again. I finally stumbled out of bed at 3am and turned on the light. Sure enough I hadn't been dreaming something was definitely touching me. Ants were crawling all over my comforter and me and I had been swatting them in my sleep. I can't begin to describe the level of "freak the fuck out" that hit my sleep addled brain at 3am in the morning.
Now I don't have anything against insects in general, but anything that bites pretty much gets nuclear winter declared inside my house. I got pushed into a fire ant bed as a kid and had too many "lawn mower meets ant hill" incidents while growing up to be nice to ants. Luckily California ants don't seem to bite much, and are generally just looking for water. Call me an ant racist, but I smashed all the ones I could see (black ants on a dark wood bed half asleep at 3am!), threw my comforter in the corner, and dragged my mattress, pillow, and a blanket off to sleep on the floor. I've only been here 10 days and had my own bed for the last 4 days and now somehow I'm back to sleeping on the floor. I was just drifting back off to sleep (Wifecat curled up at my side of course) when I heard the little voice in the back of my mind say the Cartman quote. I managed to scare the cat into finding somewhere else to sleep by laughing my ass off.
I'm coming back from work with Raid though. No mercy!
I think therefore..
Posted by Mike
The important thing is this: To be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become. - Charles DuBois
This quote holds a pretty deep meaning for me. I came across it late last summer when I started to get antsy with life in Mobile. It made me think long and hard on both what I had achieved and what I wanted out of life. This single quote opened up the realization that my future, for good or for ill, was in my hands and my hands alone. My happiness was MY responsibility, not anyone elses, and if I wasn't happy then it was my own damn fault. Throughout the next year that theme was repackaged and re-presented to me over and over in a variety of ways until I finally accepted it.
While I realized I wanted something to change, I had no idea what or where. Being the logical person I am I went through a period of self examination trying to determine what exactly I was dissatisfied with. My friends and family? No,they were fine. My job? Nope, I pretty much liked everyone I worked with. My work? Well, it had its up and downs. High stress for sure. My city? Uh..it's a paved over swamp. With climate and wildlife to match. Bingo.
About this same time my boss Jeff sent around a little career guide book to his managers; if you haven't read The Adventures of Johnny Bunko I highly recommend it. It's written in a pseudo-English manga style in an effort to "connect" to all us Gen X/Y'ers out there but if you can get past the medium it's got 6 lessons to take away:
- There is no plan.
- Think strengths, not weaknesses
- It’s not about you.
- Persistence trumps talent.
- Make excellent mistakes.
- Leave an imprint.
The idea was these would apply to your career, but honestly it works for your life too. #1 hit me hard; here I was struggling and trying to plan my life and happiness and it just wasn't working. Once I quit planning and just ..."did", everything else seemed to fall into place. I realized life doesn't come with a roadmap or a GPS. You can't pick your destination and see a nice little print out of the choices that will get you there. You can only simply start driving. Every road you take (or not) gets you somewhere (or not), so if you don't like where you are, choose better next time. The more times you do it the better sense of direction you get, the better you ask for directions, the quicker you find your goals. Like #5 says; make excellent mistakes right?
I doubt my boss intended for the book to have quite the impact on me it did. We had discussed the topic of job stress levels in the past and why I wasn't happy, but to be honest I hadn't figured it out for myself. Once I knew that it was my environment outside of work, I knew it had to change. I had come out to San Diego the past two summers for vacation and I loved it. It had all the amenities of a large city but somehow with the feel of a small town. No matter what your interests were there was something catering to them; beaches, mountains, hiking trails, Vegas... it seemed to have it all. When the chance came to apply for my current job I almost didn't even think twice about it.
There was a good chance this would be a mistake; I was giving up a managerial position with a strong future with a stable company to become a peon again. If nothing else this would be a learning experience, an "excellent mistake" if you will, and that I (probably) wouldn't regret it. Even if it turns out to be the wrong city, I'm proud of the fact that I made this mistake well. What really got me was the fact that hardly anyone tried to talk me out of it. My closest friends and family were encouraging and supportive, and that's always helpful with these life-changing decisions.
So here I am. I've been not-so-figuratively camping out here for a little over a week now. I'm tentatively standing on my own nearly 2000 miles from everything I've known for the past 30 years. Tomorrow the rest of my stuff arrives, the last physical links to
a sense of "home". I think the real process of unpacking and settling in begins tomorrow.
I like pie!
Posted by Mike
That is some tasty, tasty pie you see there: apple pie ala mode with caramel sauce. Today was a pretty good day so I decided to celebrate a bit with room service.
I'm up in LA for a few days getting to meet the development teams I'll be working with and trying to absorb all the knowledge of my predecessor. I drove up yesterday evening after 8 and I gotta say; driving in LA was fun! 8 lanes of traffic, average speed of 70-80mph, and tons of traffic all dodging and weaving. It was like driving in a high speed go-kart track.
While up here, I managed to get my truck delivered ahead of schedule. The movers were in the area doing another drop off and called me to schedule the San Diego delivery. I talked them into dropping it here at the LA office instead and turned in my rental car a day early. Hurrah! It only took about 6 phone calls and twenty minutes to actually FIND the movers but we eventually did. My truck is filthy, smells like an oily boot, and the seat settings are all jacked up. But it's mine. Further fun factoids? I didn't realize until the day I drove up to LA that they only take payment in cash, money order, or cashiers check, and I'm nearly 1200 miles from my nearest bank branch. I'm probably the whitest looking person to ever appear to be doing a drug deal by giving him a wad of cash on a side street near the freeway.
After the truck trade we went up to the main Sony Pictures lot/campus in Culver City to meet some of the dev teams; we ran into them at The Commissary so we joined up for lunch. We got to hang out some afterward and see some product demos. It's a kickass experience to watch technology like this in action and to realize it's running on "my" platforms. Everyone I've met has been great so it sucks that I'll be 100 miles away and not able to be up this way more often. The eye candy wandering the Sony Pictures campus is a pretty nice fringe benefit too.
Looks I'll be heading back to San Diego a day early due to some network maintenance Thurs night / Fri morning. It looks like the rest of my belongings should be arriving this weekend too so hopefully I'm gonna be pretty busy. It'll be nice to have ...well a bed for starters. Maybe Wifecat will stop giving me dirty looks from across the room.
Food coma is catching up to me so I'm making an early night of it.
About Me
Lackadaisical writer, amateur photographer, professional grump, and all around spiffy IT guy.
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